Allow viewers to create a PDF from the content of your blog or website. Visitors to your blog (or class website) click to change the information to PDF to review later. View the analytics of which information has been converted from your site to determine which information has been the most useful. Since pdfs are viewable offline, this is useful for readers to download information to read on an iPad or print out for reference.This site includes advertising.

In the Classroom

Use with your class blog (or website) for your students or others to save information quickly and easily. Make your class info printer friendly using this easy add on. This tool also allows you to make student or class wiki pages into printables. For a peer editing activity, make pdfs of students' wiki contributions and have partners work on editing them in hard copy to make suggestions for improvements.

In the Classroom

Easily embed slide shows of classroom activities or projects to your blog or website using PictoBrowser. Allow students to take pictures of geometric shapes; then upload images and create a slideshow on your website. Create a folder of copyright-safe images for any classroom topic such as Spanish words, colors, famous mathematicians, presidents, etc. Then use the image slideshow on your interactive whiteboard during lessons.

Create online image phrases with this clever tool. Type any phrase into Phrasr's search box to find images to "match" the words. Narrow down your image choices for each word by choosing from many offerings. When complete, provide a title and name to publish your image phrase. The one misnomer here is that you can actually use a sentence, not just a phrase. Published phrases show the words in a slow left to right scroll easily read by anyone, with your selected images above each word. Make rebus-style messages by simply keeping the word with the "no image" option in some spots. View archives to find image phrases created by others (viewer discretion advised). Send phrases via email or other social tools when complete. You can also click to see your just-published phrase in the "archive" to copy the url directly. See a sample here. Our editors found that the image selections are rather unusual, unlike typical "clip art" collections.

In the Classroom

Use this site to make lessons grab your students' attention (which isn't always easy). Create images for content-related phrases and display on your interactive whiteboard for students to guess the phrase. "What goes up must come down" could introduce a lesson on Newton's laws! Use as a unit starter to provide image phrases related to upcoming lessons. Have students create their own phrases with images for classmates to guess the phrase (cover the sentence with a notebook tool or similar). Use pictures to display your morning message. Use this site during a poetry unit to talk about the many visual images used in poetry and for students to compose figurative language phrases that they can test in Phrasr. In art class, use Phrasr to discuss the way we relate images to meaning.

Mix your own podcast to create your own unique collection of podcasts available from NPR's library of thousands of podcasts. Name your podcast, select relevant keywords and content, and then subscribe to your new custom podcast using your podcast tool choice.This site includes advertising.

In the Classroom

Students can use NPR's "mix your own podcast" service to create interesting and informative podcast collections. Create a podcast collection of content related to your course; then share the link on your classroom blog, wiki, or website. Encourage students to share findings from the podcasts in blog posts or for extra credit on a class wiki. Play excerpts from podcasts (turn up your speakers) during the last ten minutes of study halls when students are getting "itchy."

A Vialogue is an online video with a group discussion feature. Upload a video of your own, from YouTube or one of the public videos available on Vialogue. Define the purpose of the Vialogue, provide some discussion questions, and click create to finish. Settings are easy to manage, including adding participants, managers, and making videos public or private. View comments with a time stamp connected to the section of the video discussed. Register using email and a unique user name.

In the Classroom

If you don't feel comfortable creating your own Vialogue, use the explore feature of the site to view Vialogues previously created by others. Use for teaching a concept with students viewing portions of videos and chatting content and main points with each other. Use for reviewing materials for exams or to prepare for project creation. Set up a snow day or evening video viewing time and URL to watch and discuss videos together with the teacher for extra help or enrichment. As an online back to school night, share a video at a specified time and invite parents to join you and chat their questions. Offer video/chat how-to sessions for major projects, such as science fair or other independent work. Enhance video instructions for any major assignment by scheduling a watch together session. Use with Khan Academy videos for math class. World language teachers could challenge students to chat new dialogue in their new language. Special ed teachers can create Vialogues with prompts to help students focus on key concepts in a video.

Zilladog is the safe, monitored way of providing email addresses to students. Need a way to provide emails for a pen pal project? Need to help kids work on a group project at home? Are parents asking you for a safe way to offer emails for their children? With Zilladog, a parent or teacher signs up to register a child. Parents enable the buddy list, and the only way a child can receive or send an email is with an approved buddy. Select to have parents copied on all communications. Zilladog has a teacher service, with an administrator function to set up student emails, and kids can only send and receive with approved buddies. The premium paid service offers more features.

In the Classroom

As with all student communications on the Internet, please check with school policies and parents. If permitted, set up the email accounts the first week of school to help students prepare for a great (organized) year! Zilladog provides students with an email of their own. Send messages to home for extra reinforcement or questions you had on an assignment. Make more personal contact acknowledging noteworthy behavior or successes. Group projects at home are possible with instant emails and sharing links or documents. Encourage communication between students doing study groups through email. At school, students can email parents questions or reminders for important times, dates, or assignments. Before use do a unit on Internet safety, email etiquette, and cyber bullying.

WeTransfer is an easy way to move or share up to 2 GB of files. Simply add files, enter the receiver's and sender's email addresses, and add an optional message. Then click Transfer. Files are available for two weeks. This is a public site, and the backgrounds change each time you log in. You should preview the backgrounds before suggesting students use this site. Our reviewers saw nothing objectionable.

In the Classroom

Use to collect any work from your students (or files from parents). Share images you want students to use in a project. Use to share written assignments or project updates. Be sure to have students name their documents in a standardized way to determine ownership. This is extremely handy for those moving towards a paperless classroom. Teachers who collect IEP input will love this secure way of collecting files from parents. Share the blank form and include directions for them to upload it back to you in this central location.

Create an online study group with Dweeber. Though Dweeber has the social network look, it targets study groups, classmates, book groups, and all other types of educational groups to help each other with academics. Created with young people in mind, Dweeber has an ultra-cool look, and strict, upfront safety precautions. There are several components that make Dweeber unique. Their S.M.A.R.T. profile (stands for Successes, Mind Patterns, Attractions and Interests, Resources, and Thinking Talents) helps you to get to know how you and your friends learn best. My Sites/Top Sites is where you can store the sites that help you learn and study and is a place for you to vote on the best websites in the entire Dweeber network. Dweeber lists the sites that users have rated the highest. Up to eight people at a time can engage in a real-time study session using the collaborative whiteboard.

In the Classroom

Teachers and students create your own accounts. Then invite each student as friend. Go to the "My Dweebs" tab on the top, and click "New team" in the upper right corner. Create teams of any size. Engage student groups in discussions about current events, independent reading, literature, and more. Set up teams for students to work on projects or literature circles. Use the space as a forum to work out tasks and scheduling. Use the chat area for students to discuss the current novel they are reading or to ask peers for clarification about assignments. Students can brainstorm ideas for their group presentations or help each other work out math problems using the real-time collaborative whiteboard. Your students will likely suggest additional ways to use this tool from their world.

Thinkbinder lets you create an online study group. Enter a name for your study group and click create. Next enter your name, email, and password, and then create your account. Invite others to your group via email. Your study group will have access to group chat, video chat, file management, a collaborative whiteboard, and a bookmark button to share pictures, videos, and links from anywhere on the web. Enter topics you work on, and team up with others in your study group by giving them the code for the topic. Only the introductory video uses Flash.

In the Classroom

Create your own teacher account and invite each student via email. Use the topics code to invite students to specialized groups like literature circles, research groups, etc. Engage student groups in discussions about current events, independent reading, literature, and more. Use the chat area for students to discuss the current novel they are reading or to ask peers for clarification about assignments. Students can brainstorm ideas for their group presentations or help each other work out math problems using the real-time collaborative whiteboard.

EPub Bud is a multifaceted site where you can create and share your writing, read ebooks published by others, participate in activities, and join or create groups. You can read and create ebooks for and on any device. EPub Bud uses the standard .epub file format. Go to the page titled "How To Read These ePub eBooks" to see all the different readers and browsers and recommendations for how to read the ebooks. This is perfect for those with more than one device requiring different formats or when sharing eBook resources with others. Use many formats such as doc, PDF, HTML, and more to convert. Also, see their Upload/Convert page. ePub Bud, developed for children's books, also has adult books. You can learn to create books that include audio, too.This site includes advertising.

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What better way to publish for an authentic audience than to have your student's short stories, research, children's books, and novels published here? Use for students to "publish" their own works easily. Write and collaborate using Google Docs, download the document, and then convert using this tool. Use in elementary reading to make instant ebooks from their own writing or from vocabulary words in upcoming units. Use for whole-class collaboration and create a book to share on eBook readers. The books you or your students create can also include audio and video. Offer this site to students who use digital devices to read. You can use this resource to convert eBooks for sharing in a class using a variety of devices. Since there are also adult books on ePub Bud, you will want to supervise any downloading of books by students to read in your classroom. ESL/ELL and learning support students may benefit from being able to hear or see books in a different way. Use these texts in language arts to analyze or manipulate on your interactive whiteboard to teach reading comprehension skills, parts of speech, transition words, vocabulary study, and writing style. Teacher librarians can encourage students to share student-written eBooks or book reviews in the school media center on almost any type of device.

This tool is a terrific online photo editing and paint app. No account or registration is necessary. Upload a picture or find the URL of a photo from online or Facebook. Re-size, flip, rotate, crop, or alter the exposure, saturation, and contrast. Use additional features such as fix image, smart blur, and reflections. Use even more effects such as a cartoonizer, artistic painting, or wanted photo. You will love the retouch section which features the standard red-eye and blemish fix, along with teeth whitening. Add captions or text to the pictures with a wide selection of fonts. You can also create collages, but you must enable local storage of images on your computer. The Painter section includes standard pen, brush, erase with a sponge, and burn effects to allow for drawings on the pictures. Once completed, download the finished picture to a computer, post on Facebook, share by url, or upload to Flickr. Here is a sampleof adding text to an online image without even creating an account.This site includes advertising.

In the Classroom

Use this tool anytime that photos need to be edited for use on class blogs, wikis, or sites. Encourage students to use on images for projects or presentations. Use the editor to edit pictures to fit styles of pictures when doing historical reports or to set a mood. Use caption bubbles for the photos themselves to tell the stories. Have students annotate or label Creative Commons online images of cells, structures of an animal, and much more, sharing the results (with an image credit) on your class wiki.

Looking for project ideas to use with Scratch? Take a look at this generous community where teachers are sharing great ideas, handouts, videos, and more about using Scratch. Only the introductory video requires Flash.

In the Classroom

View the resources without creating an account. Consider joining the community to learn more about using Scratch in the classroom. You'll want to bookmark, comment, and participate, but you need to join to do that. View and use activities to increase programming knowledge and the use of the Scratch program. Mark this one in your Favorites as a reference. Don't be afraid to allow Scratch-hooked students to explore some of the suggestions, as well.

Search for any place in the world and view images of "what was there" in the past using a Google Maps street view. Find your location on Google Maps, then search through the list of available photographs. View the photo details or view in Google Street View (the little orange man). Photo details include date taken, title, description, and copyright information. Roll over the photo for a magnified view. In Street View, you can fade in and out through the photograph. You can upload photos, too. This tool is also available as an iPhone app.

In the Classroom

Use this tool to explore the changes in your local area or elsewhere. Compare medicine, education, nutrition, and more from each of the time periods. Create a campaign to showcase your local area today by cataloguing various neighborhoods with your classes. Write stories about life in each of the historical periods. Research headline news of those days, political figures, and major achievements. In elementary grades, show how towns and cities change over time by projecting the photos and maps as part of your Communities unit. In very early grades, introduce the very idea of history by showing "what was there" at familiar local sites. Have students write stories about what happened there "once upon a time."

This site from Wolfram Alpha and Mathematica offers dynamic tools and materials for learning math topics and MUCH more. The tool has an interactive textbook and lesson plans aligned to the Common Core standards. Check out the supplemental materials that include demonstrations and videos. Currently the portal contains FULL materials for Algebra and some material for Calculus. Coming soon is Pre-Calculus, along with additional features like problem generators. The interactive Algebra textbook uses the CK-12 Flexbook, Wolfram|Alpha widgets and links, and demonstrations created in Mathematica. You must set up a free account to see all that is available. Most content requires the free CDF player software, available for download.

In the Classroom

This is an excellent resource for math teachers and students alike. Use the variety of lessons, links, and demonstrations to help students in your class. Set up a computer in your class -- or the computer lab -- with the like problem generator so students who are struggling with a particular concept can practice.

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I like this because Wolfram Alpha and Mathematica are used in the real world for a students future career. It exposes them to tools they can use when they are older. They will be more advanced because they have been using them as students. Thank you, HeatherHeather, CA, Grades: 9 - 12

Photo Pin is a search engine for Creative Commons photos that you can use (with credit), even if you are placing products on the web. Photo Pin has a beautiful and simple interface; filter your search by keyword and category. Clicking Get Photo also provides the attribution link for the photo and a choice of different sizes to download. Warning: Remind students about school and class rules about searching on the Internet. Give students explicit directions about what to search for. Some images are sexually graphic.

In the Classroom

Photo Pin is invaluable for students and teachers needing high quality photos for use on class blogs, wikis, or presentation sites. Be sure to remind students to use the attribution link along with the photo, especially when publishing on the web. Art students can use these images to create collages, design studies, and more, all with attribution of their sources. Use images as blog prompts or illustrations in student projects. Make sure students see you giving attribution, too! Find images of locations you are studying in world cultures or geography class. Find images to use in student online projects such as Bookemon, reviewed here, or Superlame, reviewed here. Keep this site as a reference link on your class web page for any time students are creating wikis, blogs, or electronic projects where they need images. They can find just the right picture with CC licensing, and you should require them to include the citation provided! Be sure that students understand rules for sharing appropriate and inappropriate images and copyright concerns.

Grockit is a tool for hosting timely Q&A discussions around web videos, and it works with any YouTube or Vimeo hosted videos. You can create a Q&A page about a video that only you and the people you choose can access. You can moderate the conversation to get additional controls and deeper insight into what's happening. To begin, search for any YouTube or Vimeo video, or put in the URL of a video you want to use. Then, choose to make a public or private question and answer session. The video will appear framed on the page, and you just need to add a few questions to get things started. Type these into the field on the top left of your screen. If you play through the video and pause at certain moments, the question will appear at that point in the video. Share the video by clicking on 'Share this page." This will give you a URL that you can share with others. If you click on 'Moderate Q&A on this video' at the bottom of the page, you can create playlists, moderate submissions to the Q&A, and even get an embed code to add it to other materials.

Note that the general public can write and answer PUBLIC Q/A sessions, so preview for appropriateness before sharing with others. If you create a private Q/A you can avoid this problem.

In the Classroom

Begin by searching for pre-existing public videos that already have questions. Preview and share these with students as you begin a unit or for review. Create your own videos for students to use for review or have students generate questions for a video you choose. Assign videos for students to view at home, in the computer lab, or on laptops. You can even have students post their questions and responses within the video. Learning Support teachers could have students write questions and test each other using videos to reinforce topics they are studying without using loads of reading material.

Create your own web page almost instantly with this page editor and publisher. Select a page address and title then start adding content using the site's tools. The format is similar to Word documents. Highlight text to change font, size, and colors. Include images with a URL link or upload to the site. Image descriptions, height, and borders can all be modified. Include your email before publishing your page if you want to be able to edit your pages later; however, it is not necessary.

In the Classroom

Use this site for students to post simple projects such as stories, poems, and art projects. Collect a master list of links to student pages on your classroom website, wiki, or blog for easy access. If students are creating pages, be sure to check with your district's policy on student use of email as well as publishing of student work.

Easily create and download a colorful pie chart with PieColor. Enter the number of slices you want, the percent for each slice, and a label (example - 48% girls, 52% boys). Adjust colors as you like by clicking on the color wheel for each slice. Options include a title, background color, and size of text. Download or embed in your blog using links at the bottom of your pie chart.This site includes advertising.

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Collect data in your classroom and quickly create a graph to represent it. Share through links or adding images to blogs, wikis, or websites. Graphs can also be shared on an interactive whiteboard or projector for better analysis of data by the class. Graph results of a test, answers from students, favorite foods, fictitious budgets, class schedules, and whatever else is applicable in your classroom. Use the pie charts students create to teach their peers how to read charts that accompany informational texts. Have cooperative learning groups create their own graphs to share with the class on the class wiki. Use this tool to create quick pie charts on your interactive whiteboard whenever you count class votes or encounter other data so students "see" data on a regular basis and visual students have another way to absorb the information. Keep the link handy on your web page to access it quickly in or out of class.

This tool generates passwords with a random assortment of letters and numbers. Do you need a specific number of letters, numbers, or characters? No problem! Click on the Options tab to check off the options needed from the drop down menu.

In the Classroom

Use this simple and effective tool for creating random passwords. It's great for use in generating passwords for students or sites that you use. Unfortunately, Passcreator is unable to help us remember the generated passwords! For help with that, we recommend creating a document or spreadsheet to keep track of passwords for your students. Computer teachers can also use this tool when teaching about online safety/security.

How many words do you know? Play the Dynamo challenge and learn new vocabulary with this free site. Choose from various grade levels, subject areas, and even for test prep (high school and college/graduate level). Find help with Latin and Spanish, too. Create lists and look at lists created by others. Create your own personalized home page to keep track of your progress. Play games and study using flashcards.This site includes advertising.

In the Classroom

Use Word Dynamo to explore or study new words. Create lists of words to learn. Have students keep track of their progress by creating their own page. You may want to post the address for this program on your website or wiki, and bookmark it on the classroom computers. There is no need to sign up to simply play games.

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Be careful! The Greek and Latin root games on this site are fakes and do not offer the benefits that real root-learning does. Also, even the definitions of elementary level words contain many much harder words, meaning that students may get an inaccurately low reading.Ellisha, , Grades: 0 - 12